Leicestershire | Middlesex
HERE are two springs, one called Julian's Stony Well, the other Castleton Well.
There is a spring here called Hagston Well (lapis ad aggerem), on the way to Sho Lane.--Stukeley's Diaries, j. 296--Surtees Soc., 76.
Here is a spring celebrated locally for its healing properties. It rises from the side of a bank in a plantation, and is overshadowed by an ancient thorn, on the branches of which hang innumerable rags, fastened there by those who have drunk of its waters.
There is a spring at Holy Well Dale, near Winterton, in North Lincolnshire, formerly celebrated for its healing properties; and the bushes around used to be hung with rags.
Here is the "Bye Well," or village well, interesting as retaining the old Danish By or Bye in a separate form. The village of Byewell, in Northumberland, is most probably named from some such well.
A deep circular pit, the water of which rises to the level of the surface but never overflows. It is considered bottomless by the superstitious.
In Glentham Church there is a tomb with a figure known as Molly Grime. Formerly this figure was regularly washed every Good Friday by seven old maids of Glentham with water brought from Newell Well, each receiving a shilling for her trouble, in consequence of an old bequest connected with some property in that district. About 1832 the custom was discontinued.--Old EngIish Customs and Charities,1842, p. 100.